The following are comments culled from the responses to the CHRR 2001 HRMS Survey.
•“Keep the business involved, it manages expectations and lessens the learning curve later.”
•“Be sure enough people are trained in the initial implementation stages to protect from staff turnover.”
•“Include a pilot group for UAT (User Acceptance Testing) and allow ample time for testing. Set a realistic and flexible ‘go live’ date — preferably not towards year-end.”
•“Easier to start clean rather than ‘cleaning up’ data transferred from another system, for example payroll, except for basic tombstone information.”
•“You definitely need dedicated resources for implementation as opposed to part time resources.”
•“No matter how detailed you get in your specifications, issues will still pop up that were not expected.”
•“You have to pay attention to the changes in business processes that have to happen to accommodate the new software, and you have to anticipate the expectations of the people who work on the system. Changes have been positive, but change is still difficult for people.”
•“Organizational stability is a bonus, our stabilization period was negatively impacted by organizational changes.”
•“Utilize ‘full-time’ resources, our teams had members who were split between the project and their ‘regular job’.”
•“Strong consulting resources are a must.”
•“When implementing a change to an HR business process, you need to provide a large amount of assistance to the business as they feel they are incapable of handling ‘new’ ways of performing HR functions. Look for champions or leaders who quickly grasp the new concepts and attempt to lever their knowledge and excitement.”
•“Many of the ERP/HRMS systems out there are built in modules. Be very clear on your needs and think about future planning up front. Thinking of the future may save you headaches and your organization significant dollar amounts. If you don’t plan for the future, you may find out only after an implementation that in order to take advantage of the functionality that your HRMS offers, you may have to purchase another component outside of the HRMS function. Ask your software/database provider lots of questions to avoid this pitfall.”
•“Don’t underestimate the complexity of your ‘rules’ in trying to fit to the application you purchased. Determine up front whether business process re-engineering is going to be done - if so, ensure that it is done and functional areas buy-in from the beginning.”
•“Keep the business involved, it manages expectations and lessens the learning curve later.”
•“Be sure enough people are trained in the initial implementation stages to protect from staff turnover.”
•“Include a pilot group for UAT (User Acceptance Testing) and allow ample time for testing. Set a realistic and flexible ‘go live’ date — preferably not towards year-end.”
•“Easier to start clean rather than ‘cleaning up’ data transferred from another system, for example payroll, except for basic tombstone information.”
•“You definitely need dedicated resources for implementation as opposed to part time resources.”
•“No matter how detailed you get in your specifications, issues will still pop up that were not expected.”
•“You have to pay attention to the changes in business processes that have to happen to accommodate the new software, and you have to anticipate the expectations of the people who work on the system. Changes have been positive, but change is still difficult for people.”
•“Organizational stability is a bonus, our stabilization period was negatively impacted by organizational changes.”
•“Utilize ‘full-time’ resources, our teams had members who were split between the project and their ‘regular job’.”
•“Strong consulting resources are a must.”
•“When implementing a change to an HR business process, you need to provide a large amount of assistance to the business as they feel they are incapable of handling ‘new’ ways of performing HR functions. Look for champions or leaders who quickly grasp the new concepts and attempt to lever their knowledge and excitement.”
•“Many of the ERP/HRMS systems out there are built in modules. Be very clear on your needs and think about future planning up front. Thinking of the future may save you headaches and your organization significant dollar amounts. If you don’t plan for the future, you may find out only after an implementation that in order to take advantage of the functionality that your HRMS offers, you may have to purchase another component outside of the HRMS function. Ask your software/database provider lots of questions to avoid this pitfall.”
•“Don’t underestimate the complexity of your ‘rules’ in trying to fit to the application you purchased. Determine up front whether business process re-engineering is going to be done - if so, ensure that it is done and functional areas buy-in from the beginning.”
